The Maine Avenue Fish Market of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, also known as "the Wharf" or "the Fish Wharf", is one of the few surviving open air seafood markets on the east coast. In operation since 1805, it is the oldest continuously operating fish market in the United States, 17 years older than New York City's Fulton Market

Fulton Fish Market

The Fulton Fish Market is a fish market in The Bronx, New York, United States. It was originally a wing of the Fulton Market, established in 1822 to sell a variety of foodstuffs and produce...

, which was relocated to the Bronx in 2005. The Maine Avenue Market was relocated in the 1960s, within a few blocks of its original location on the Washington Channel.

Located on the Southwest waterfront

Washington, D.C. (southwest)

Southwest is the southwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located south of the National Mall and west of South Capitol Street. It is the smallest quadrant of the city. Southwest is small enough that it is frequently referred to as a neighborhood in and of...

 under the shadow of Interstate 395

Interstate 395 (District of Columbia-Virginia)

Interstate 395 in Washington, D.C., and Virginia is a 13 mile long spur route that begins at a junction with Interstate 95 in Springfield, Virginia and ends in northwest Washington, D.C. It passes underneath the National Mall near the United States Capitol and ends at a junction with U.S...

, it stands as a cultural relic popular with locals but unknown to many of the tourists who flock to the monuments and museums just five blocks north. There are over ten stores, each with a specialty. The Maine Avenue Fish Market is open each day of the week, but the largest selection of fish is on display Friday evening through Sunday.

A multitude of fresh seafood is sold on floating barges that line the pier along Water Street. These barges are a tribute to the original system in which fishing boats would journey sixty miles back and forth from Colonial Beach, Virginia

Colonial Beach, Virginia

Colonial Beach is a town in Westmoreland County, Virginia, United States. The population was 3,228 at the 2000 census. Possessing the second largest beach front in the state, Colonial Beach was a popular resort town in the early to mid-20th century, before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge made ocean...

, where they would harvest the bay. In the 1960s, refrigerated trucks became more efficient and the "buy boats" were permanently docked and later replaced by the steel barges which exist today.

The original 19th-century Municipal Fish Market building was razed in the 1960s to make way for a waterfront urban renewal project, but the vendors refused to leave and exercised a clause in their leases allowing them to stay for 99 years. As a result, the current Municipal Pier was built for the market underneath the I-395 12th Street highway offramp, to service the new floating barges. The Fish Market has been praised by urban planners as an example of the sort of small-scale, integrated streetscape which has been displaced by large-scale urban redevelopment in much of the Washington D.C. area. However, the Market is somewhat isolated from the Mall due to its location under the freeway, and the city has refrained from promoting it as an attraction due to uncertainty about whether it can be preserved as an outdoor floating market.

Plans are underway (as of 2009) to once again redevelop the entire length of Maine Avenue and remove the frontage road (Water Street) on which the existing waterfront buildings and wharf are located. It is unclear what will be the impact on the historic market, or whether it will be wholly preserved, but all of the associated support structures on Water Street, including the sole remaining land-based eatery, were scheduled to be razed ”to keep the Fish Market in safe and operable condition until the redevelopment occurs”. According to a website associated with the developer PN Hoffman, "Washington’s historic Fish Market will be preserved and renovated and the maritime heritage of the site promoted."